CBC’s The Porter, which was named the most-nominated project for the 2023 Canadian Screen Awards this week, will not be returning for a second season.

The pubcaster confirms to Playback Daily that CBC wanted the series to move forward but it lacked a coproduction partner needed to complete financing, as first reported by The Canadian Press on Thursday (Feb. 23).

Word of its fate comes after the first season of the 1920s-set railway drama — which aired on BET+ in the U.S. and was produced by Winnipeg-based Inferno Pictures and Toronto’s Sphere Media (formerly Sienna Films) — led overall nominations for the Canadian Screen Awards with 19 nods on Wednesday (Feb. 22).

“CBC ordered a second season of The Porter from Sphere Media in the spring of 2022 and proceeded to fund the writing of season two. Unfortunately, despite everyone’s best efforts to secure another coproduction partner, Sphere Media was unable to complete financing on the new season,” Sally Catto, general manager, entertainment, factual and sports, CBC, said in a statement provided to Playback.

“We are thankful we had the opportunity to bring this groundbreaking and little-known story to Canadians, and congratulate Sphere Media, Inferno Pictures and The Porter creative team, cast and crew on their extraordinary achievement.”

Jennifer Kawaja, executive producer of the series and president, scripted and feature films, English content, Sphere Media, tells Playback that “it’s a tough marketplace and BET+ passed on season two.”

“We tried to set it up elsewhere and we couldn’t, as often happens with projects that aren’t sort of straight-ahead procedurals with kind of mostly Caucasian casts,” Kawaja adds. “There are so many reasons that projects don’t get re-set up in a second season. It happens often.”

A spokesperson for BET+ tells Playback they “are not providing comment at this time.”

The Porter was originated and co-created by Arnold Pinnock, led by showrunners Annmarie Morais and Marsha Greene, and directed by Charles Officer and R.T. Thorne. It premiered in Canada on CBC on Feb. 21, 2022 and got an Emmy nomination for best choreography for Christian Vincent.

The series was funded with the support of the Canada Media Fund and Manitoba Film & Music, and distributed internationally by Abacus Media Rights and Sphere Distribution.

Inspired by real events surrounding Black train porters fighting for equity in their workplace in the 1920s, the 8 x 60-minute series had an all-Black writers’ room with Andrew Burrows-Trotman, Priscilla White and Andrea Scott. R.T. Thorne also participated in the writers’ room.

The cast included stars Aml Ameen (I May Destroy You), Ronnie Rowe Jr. (Star Trek: Discovery), and Mouna Traoré (Self Made), who are all nominated for Canadian Screen Awards for Best Lead Performer, Drama Series.

The show is also up for Best Drama Series, Best Direction for Officer and Thorne individually; Best Writing for Morais and Aubrey Nealon (episode 101) and for Marsha Greene (episode 104); and guest performance for Alfre Woodard.

Image courtesy of CBC